Wednesday saw the start of the knockout phase, the top eight players from the round-robin now in the quarterfinals, and the remaining four fighting for 9th to shared 11th place (there won’t be a match for place 11). It was also the shift from the rapid time control (10+10) to the classical time control (90+30), so finally the players could dive into the intricacies of the new starting position as deeply as they wanted.

It was a luxury they needed for today’s position #841, one that had never been played before in any official Chess960 event. Yesterday, one of the positions had actually been seen in the 2024 G.O.A.T. Challenge in Weissenhaus, but the players who faced it for the second time were not really aware of it. In general, it’s going to be hard to develop any significant opening theory for Freestyle Chess, and that’s exactly the idea behind it.

Still, a bit of theory seemed to be developing for this particular starting position as Ian Nepomniachtchi suggested an interesting pawn sacrifice during the 10-minute pre-game analysis: 1.e4 f5 2.exf5 g6!? 3.fxg6 Nxg6.

We can call it the Nepo Gambit even though he didn’t get to play it himself, but Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh Dommaraju all felt comfortable enough trying it out today (the latter with the opening moves 1.a4 a5 inserted).

Still, the 10 minutes for the joint analysis were not enough for all the players to really understand what was going on. Only Arjun Erigaisi and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made their first move quickly (both going for 1.e4), while the other three white players went into the tank right away.

One of them was Vincent Keymer, and let’s remind you of his 21-minute (!) think on move one in the second game of the Weissenhaus final earlier this year. This time, after four minutes he chose 1.d4, the same move Magnus Carlsen made.

The Norwegian GM said in the confession booth that this particular starting position was perhaps the most difficult he has faced in Freestyle so far and was considering four other opening moves. In fact, Richard Rapport (1.a4) and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (1.g4) started differently as well and the richness of Freestyle Chess couldn’t be demonstrated more clearly!

Carlsen vs. Abdusattorov 1-0

Carlsen arrived at the playing hall perhaps even more confident than usual, having won the Late Titled Tuesday the night before with a perfect 11/11. Even though it was a temporary return to traditional chess, it cannot be bad for one’s mood.

After spending some time on his first move, Carlsen survived a bit of a scare early on. He called his fifth and sixth move “way too ambitious,” and basically Abdusattorov missed a chance for a big advantage there.

As it went, Carlsen did get a slight edge out of the opening as Abdusattorov couldn’t find the most forcing moves. “I think he’s definitely not made the most of his position and I’ve now more or less completely stabilized,” Carlsen said around move 15. “Trying to win this position is going to be very tough, even though he has no active play,” he added.

Abdusattorov made things easier with a few more inaccuracies, and ended up in a very problematic middlegame with the classic theme of good knight vs bad bishop. Commentator David Howell, now also of BBC fame, didn’t hold back: “This looks like a simultaneous game where your opponent creates a couple of threats, you just knock them back and you just take all the positional advantages and without calculating anything you just win.”

It wasn’t that easy, even though by move 25, Carlsen also had twice as much time with 32 vs. 16 minutes on the clock. Abdusattorov sacrificed a pawn, and then another one, but did manage to trade the minor pieces and activate some of his heavy pieces. It was never enough though. He made his 44th move with just a second left on his clock, blundering a fourth pawn, and the ensuing queen endgame was hopeless. A strong, trademark win for Carlsen on the first day of the quarterfinals.

“Things got maybe a little bit more nervy than they needed to be, but getting off to a win feels fantastic of course,” said Carlsen afterward. “But this is what happens; he is a good player. He doesn’t usually go down without giving you a scare or two.”

Keymer-Nepomniachtchi ½-½

“It’s important to keep the momentum,” said Nepomniachtchi after winning the round-robin on Tuesday. You could say that he did so a few hours later with his bold move to pick Weissenhaus winner Keymer as his opponent, and his preference for starting with the black pieces was interesting as well. If you want to win the tournament, you might as well face one of the biggest challenges straight away!?

Early in the game, the Russian GM entered the confession booth and described the opening as “solid and calm” while admitting mixed feelings about “his” gambit, which he saw happening on three other boards.

By move 25, the position was blockaded and rather equal, but not the clock: 13 minutes left for Keymer vs. just over an hour for Nepomniachtchi, for whom the clock is known to be an extra weapon, being the fast player that he is. In this case, however, the clock didn’t play a huge role as too many pieces were traded in Keymer’s timetrouble. The German GM could safely steer the game into a completely drawn opposite-colored bishop ending. Since it the players had gone beyond move 40, luckily for them a draw offer was allowed.

“I felt that maybe somewhere I had some advantage but at the end I never saw anything clear,” said Keymer. “I think it was quite a decent game from both of us.”

Arjun vs. Nakamura ½-½

Nakamura was one of the players believing in the Nepo Gambit, but perhaps he started to get doubts when Arjun got an “octopus” knight on the e6 square? By that time, Vidit had entered the confession booth and said about this game: “I think [it] is gonna spice up a bit!”

Yesterday, Arjun revealed that he had done quite some serious preparation, analyzing a lot of different starting position and “trying to make some principles out of it.” He entered the confession booth soon after Vidit, and said that he was “quite confident” about his situation. He didn’t like his opponent’s move 7…d5. “I’m really liking my position,” he noted.

Arjun, however, spoiled his winning advantage on move 20, and then got into trouble himself. Six moves later, Nakamura missed a good chance, and then another one, after which the endgame was equal. The players played it out until a stalemate in a pawn endgame on move 77.

Nakamura admitted afterward that he was probably lost out of the opening after trying that Nepo Gambit, and commented: “For pretty much the first 1.5 hours I literally wanted to get up from my board & strangle Nepo!”

Vachier-Lagrave vs. Caruana ½-½

MVL called the quarterfinals “The Unknown,” as he had never played Chess960 at a classical time control before. To prepare for that, he looked at the games from Weissenhaus and checked the time management of some of the players.

At least from that perspective, the Frenchman’s game today was a success as he kept a time advantage almost throughout. Initially, that meant his moves were not optimal though, but Caruana missed a couple of chances for an advantage. It was Vachier-Lagrave who got the advantage when he “won” the bishop pair, but due to over-cautious play on move 23 he lost his chances as well and an equal endgame appeared on the board.

Two games were played for the fight for 9th-12th place. Tomorrow we’ll also be seeing the return games here, and the winners of these minimatches will then play a match for ninth place. For the two players who lose tomorrow, the tournament will be over with a prize of $7,500 going to shared 11th place.

Praggnanandhaa vs. Vidit 1-0

Praggnanandhaa won the first game in the all-Indian clash vs. Vidit, but not without some fortune. It was Vidit who reached a winning position shortly after the opening as he built up a strong attack on the enemy king. As Pragg was holding on by a thread, Vidit had only one winning move on move 26, and missed it. The reason? Big, big timetrouble.

At that point, Vidit had only 33 seconds on the clock, and used 25 of them to play 26…Qb5, missing a tricky reply from his opponent that instantly equalized. It was something we had seen in the rapid round-robin as well: Vidit playing well, but spending too much time.

As he continued to play “on increment,” it was only a matter of time before Vidit would make another mistake, which happened on move 33. With tactical means, Praggnanandhaa won two pawns and gained the full point.

Rapport vs. Gukesh 1-0

Besides Carlsen, and somewhat away from the spotlights, Rapport also played a truly excellent game. The Hungarian GM, who was Ding Liren’s second in the world championship match vs. Gukesh back in December, this time faced the new champ himself in a classical time control game and basically dominated from the start. He declined the Nepo Gambit, got a slightly better endgame, improved his position further and further and eventually won an endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops showing great technique.

Each match consists of two classical games. If tied 1–1, tiebreaks will follow. Game two is scheduled for Thursday.